Rubber keyboards for keyed structures are not new. Neither are rubber keyboards having electrically conductive portions thereon. There are problems, however, associated with the currently used keyboards as well as problems associated with their production.
Prior art keyboards are manufactured by joining a contact material, i.e., an electrically conductive material which has been fashioned beforehand, with a keyboard which is either made of non-conductive material or is coated with non-conductive material.
In a particular method, a large number of small contact members are press formed by molding in metal molds. The contact members are thereafter affixed to the keyboard, thus constituting a two-step method of manufacture which is not only complicated but is time consuming. In order to overcome the difficulties attendant in such an operation, this invention was conceived and reduced to practice.